Members of Brazil's Roofless Movement find shelter in vacant buildings

A member of Brazil's Movimento dos Sem-Teto (Roofless Movement) plays with a soccer ball in the courtyard of one of the 11 empty buildings that the movement took over recently, in the centre of Sao Paulo, Nov. 18.

According to Sao Paulo, Brazil's, City Hall, there are some 400,000 people in need of stable housing, including the 4,000 families of the Movimento dos Sem-Teto (Roofless Movement) who are squatting in abandoned or vacant buildings that range from apartment blocks to hotels, in Sao Paulo, the largest city in South America.

Nacho Doce / Reuters

Members of Brazil's Roofless Movement march with their belongings to occupy one of the 11 empty buildings that the movement took over in one night, in the center of Sao Paulo.

Nacho Doce / Reuters

Members of Brazil's Roofless Movement break open the front door of a vacant building during the occupation of one of the 11 empty buildings the movement took over in Sao Paulo, Oct. 29.

Nacho Doce / Reuters

Members of Brazil's Roofless Movement enter with their belongings one of the 11 empty buildings that the movement took over in one night, in the center of Sao Paulo, Oct. 29.

Nacho Doce / Reuters

Police arrive as members of Brazil's Roofless Movement begin the occupation of an empty buildings that the movement took over, Oct. 29.

Nacho Doce / Reuters

Members of Brazil's Roofless Movement block the front door of a vacant building from the inside during the occupation of one of the structures that the movement took over.

Nacho Doce / Reuters

Members of Brazil's Roofless Movement clean a vacant apartment they chose, in one of the 11 empty buildings that the movement took over in one night, in the centre of Sao Paulo, Oct. 29.

Nacho Doce / Reuters

Siblings, who are children of members of Brazil's Roofless Movement, play in a vacant apartment, Nov. 6.

Nacho Doce / Reuters

Members of Brazil's Roofless Movement stand in the hallway of one of the 11 empty buildings that the movement took over recently, in the center of Sao Paulo, Nov. 6.

Nacho Doce / Reuters

A member of Brazil's Roofless Movement leaves for work from a bulding occupied by the group through a hole made with a sledgehammer.

Nacho Doce / Reuters

A leader (second right, white smock) of Brazil's Movimento dos Sem-Teto (Roofless Movement) speaks to a state health worker (in blue) and a policeman, outside one of the 11 empty buildings that the movement took over in the centre of Sao Paulo, Dec. 4.